An air conditioner is for adjusting temperature, humidity, air current in a certain space so as to be appropriate for activity of human being and removing dust, etc. from air simultaneously.
The air conditioner consists of an indoor unit for cooling/heating indoor air and an outdoor unit for discharging/absorbing heat generated in the indoor unit to outdoors, the indoor unit and the outdoor unit can be installed separately or as one body.
In particular, an air conditioner having an indoor unit and an outdoor unit as one body is called a single unit type air conditioner or a window type air conditioner (hereinafter, it is referred to a single unit type air conditioner).
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal-sectional view illustrating the conventional single unit type air conditioner.
As depicted in FIG. 1, the conventional single unit type air conditioner includes a casing 10 having an indoor space region 21 and an outdoor space region 31 separately formed by a separation plate 11; a compressor 12 installed in the indoor space region 21 and compressing refrigerant into high temperature and high pressure state; an outdoor unit 30 being installed in the outdoor space region 31 and having a condenser 32 for cooling the refrigerant compressed by the compressor 12; and an indoor unit 20 installed in the indoor space region 21 and having an evaporator 22 performing heat exchange between the refrigerant condensed in the condenser 32 and indoor air.
A motor 13 is installed at the center of the separation plate 11, a fan 23 for generating air flow is installed at a rotational shaft 13a of the motor 13 in the indoor space region 21 in order to make sucked indoor air pass the evaporator 22, and a cooling fan 33 for generating air flow is installed at the rotational shaft 13a of the motor 13 in the outdoor space region 31 in order to make sucked outdoor air pass the condenser 32.
In general, a turbo fan is used as the fan 23, and an axial fan is used as the cooling fan 33.
In the conventional single unit type air conditioner, when power is applied, the compressor 12 compresses the refrigerant in the operation, the refrigerant compressed in the compressor 12 releases heat to the outdoor air sucked by the cooling fan 33 while passing the condenser 32, and accordingly the refrigerant is cooled.
The refrigerant cooled while passing the condenser 32 flows to the evaporator 22, performs heat exchange with the indoor air sucked by the fan 23 and cools the indoor air so as to be at a certain temperature.
Herein, condensate water is generated on the surface of the evaporator 22 while the indoor air is cooled.
The air conditioner includes a condensate water discharge unit (not shown) for discharging condensate water generated in the operation to the outside, and a flow channel (not shown) is formed at a bottom region 14 of the casing 10 in order to make the condensate water flow from the indoor space region 21 to the outdoor space region 31 smoothly.
In more detail, the condensate water condensed on the surface of the evaporator 22 flows to the bottom region 14 of the casing 10 and flows to the outdoor space region 31 along the flow channel.
The condensate water gathered in the bottom region 14 of the outdoor space region 31 is generally discharged to the outside by the condensate water discharge unit (not shown), etc. However, part of the condensate water can be scattered onto the condenser 32 by a scattering unit (not shown), etc. additionally installed or installed at the end of a wing of the cooling fan 33 in order to cool the condenser 32 more efficiently.
In the meantime, the conventional single unit type air conditioner can be installed in any space, but, it is generally installed at a window. However, because of the structure, there is a limit to adjust a width or a height of the air conditioner while securing a certain cooling performance.
In more detail, in the conventional single unit type air conditioner, because it is installed at a window, installation conditions may be intricate, in addition, it may injure the view.